The Lochac Brewer’s Guild competition for 2015 was Cider. There were 5 entries, 3 from Roheisa Le Sarjent(Belle Sibly) one from , Dauid de Cochran (Dauid Marsden) and one from Padraig Lowther (Paddy Neumann). Entries were judged by a panel of 3 expert judges, Mistress Miriam Galbraith, Master Brian di Caffa and Rossell Fitz-Richard (aka Redbeard, judge of the annual NAAMA brew comp), and scored on documentation, workmanship, authenticity and overall impression. With only 5 entries the planned 3 categories were combined into one.
1st place Rohesia’s Avoncider with a score 95
2nd place Rohesia’s Crabapple Cider with a score of 91
3rd Paddy’s spiced Cyzer with a score of 89
4th Rohesia’s Serpent’s Kiss Cider with a score of 79
5th Dauid’s Pear Scrumpy with a score of 62

Your challenge, should you accept it, is to produce no less than two 300ml bottles of Queen Elizabeth’s Methaeglen, as per the recipe below, before Lochac’s Mid-Winter Coronation at which time the brewing Laurels will judge which entrant has best accomplished this task using the Lochac Arts & Sciences judging criteria listed at http://artsandsciences.lochac.sca.org/judging. The recipe recommends aging for six months, so you will need to get brewing promptly.

You are to submit two bottles, each labelled with your name or the name of your brewery and the date of brewing, accompanied by documentation including your own redaction of the recipe and an explanation of any deviations or changes made.

Entrants will be asked to declare their intention to compete to the Brewers Guild Clerk, Rurik farserkr (ben.paton@gmail.com) by 1st June 2014 at latest. All entries must be delivered to him by Tuesday 24th of June 2014 or, by prior arrangement, brought to Midwinter Coronation in Politarchopolis on Saturday 5th July. Please contact Rurik for a delivery address and/or to arrange cellaring with him.

The results will be announced at the event, if possible, or by email soon afterwards. The entry judged the best will win a beautiful hand turned wooden mazer.

Original recipe from ‘The Feminine Monarchie, or a Treatise concerning Bees and the due ordering of Bees,’ 1609 By Charles ButlerChapterX “Of the Fruit and profit of Bees. Part 2″ 1609 facsimile (Transcribed below)

One excellent Receipt I will here recite: and it is of that which our renowned QueenElizabeth, of happy memory, did so well like, that she would every year have a vessel of it.

First, gather a bushel of Sweet-briar-leaves, and a bushel of Thyme, half a bushel of Rosemary, and a peck of Bay-leaves. Seeth all these (being well washed) in a Furnace of fair water:

let them boil the space of half an hour, or better: and then pour out all the water and herbs into a Vat, and let it stand till it be but milk-warm: then strain the water from the herbs, and take to every six Gallons of water one Gallon of the finest Honey, and put it into the Born, and labor it together half an hour: then let it stand two days, stirring it well twice or thrice each day. Then take the Liquor and boil it anew: and when it doeth (?seed?), skim it as long as there remaineth any Dross. When it is clear, put it into the Vat as before, and there let it be cooled. You must then have in a readiness a Kive of new Ale or Beer, which as soon as you have emptied, suddenly whelm it upside down, and set it up again, and presently put in theMetheglen, and let it stand three days a working. And then tun it up in Barrels, tying at every Tap-hole (by a Pack-thread) a little bag of beaten Cloves and Mace, to the value of an ounce. It must stand half a year before it be drunk.